Many avid gamers prefer challenges, visually attractive landscapes and glorifying boss battles that will leave them gasping for breath. The year 2017 had seen some amazing games and some that either had problems with the plot, gameplay or had major glitches. We have culminated a list of some games, that we feel didn’t reach the potential of what a gamer would call as “Next Gen”.
Road Rage
Released in September 2017
Developed by Team 6 Studios
Old school gamers will never forget the famous Road Rash developed by Electronic Arts in 1991. A simple racing game that allowed players to fight other characters and perform some crazy shenanigans all while trying to win the race. The game was competitive and at times really difficult to win.
That’s exactly what Road Rage is; the only difference is the lack of thrill that you may have when playing. The menu screen is well designed, but as soon as the game starts, you will notice a drop in the visual quality that is simply unpleasant to view. On further view of the game, you will find yourself switching off the sound due to the constant repetition of a mediocre rock song. The bike that you ride on seems to be floating rather than moving and game objectives aren’t very challenging. The game is available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Microsoft Windows.
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Mega Battle
Released in 17 January 2017
Published by Bandai Namco
In an effort to re-create one of your most alluring childhood imaginations of the television show, Bandai Namco released the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Mega Battle game on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. The first noticeable thing seen is how cartoonish the characters and the backgrounds have been designed. It does allow co-op gameplay of four players but no online mode/multiplayer and no additional game modes. The music in the game is repetitive with no variance and if you’re a fan of the popular theme song, you may start to hate it.
Another flaw is the actual gameplay, the player will have problems punching or kicking an enemy, as the directional buttons don’t function very well with the game mechanics. The game is available on Xbox One and PlayStation 4.
Mass Effect: Andromeda
Released in 21 March 2017
Developed by Bio Ware
The Mass Effect series has been a treat to players for a long time, mainly because of the breathtaking backgrounds, visuals and the variety of planets a player can visit. But where does it go wrong? Well for starters, the plot and the lines delivered by the NPCs are more hilarious than serious. There are also plenty of glitches, bugs and frame rate drops, which players have experienced even post patch. The dialogue options provided during conversations gives one the illusion of choice, since both options have the same outcome. The game is available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Microsoft Windows.
Star Wars: Battlefront II
Released on 17 November 2017
Developed by EA DICE, Motive Studios, Criterion Software
As Disney pushes out a new Star Wars movie release year after year with some really interesting storylines and well designed visual effects, one would believe that the video games would fare well too. But that really isn’t the case with Battlefront II, as players and gaming critics have bashed the game for the over use of micro transactions in the form of loot boxes. These loot boxes allowed players to buy heroes and certain kinds of weaponry which made them powerful, where as other players had to grind through 40 hours of gameplay for the same, creating a pay-to-win scenario. The story line isn’t very convincing either, making the plot easy to predict and in a lot of cases, boring. The game is available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Microsoft Windows.
Life of Black Tiger
Released in January 2017
Developed by 1Games
This is probably one of the most disappointing games ever ported to the PlayStation 4 from mobile devices. The game has a very unpolished and unpleasant appeal to it. The background sounds such as the breeze, insects or animal related sounds are in constant loop and sometimes absent. Even the movements and controls of the tiger are twitchy as the controller is unable to respond to the game’s mechanics properly. The story line is grammatically inefficient (if we can put it that way), with poorly constructed sentences like ‘let’s follow human’. The game is available on PlayStation 4, iOS and Android.